Visiting Resorts during Christmas but not staying on site

[heartofgodathome]

Hi! We are leaving for our first trip in a week and wanted to tour some of the Christmas decorations in the resorts. We have passes for 8 days but are not staying in Disney property. Can we just drive to the resorts and walk around or do we need to get on Disney transportation? Is it "legal" to do this? We especially want to see the life size gingerbread house.
Thanks for your reply.

 

[bradisgoofy]

No, you are not supposed to park at resort where you are not a guest, as a matter of fact, they won't even let you in. But you can use the Disney transportation after parking at a park. Note, you are not supposed to use Disney transportation from DTD to avoid the parking fees.

 

[tigger813]

We were able to visit resorts by car that we weren't staying at last December. We did not have reservations at Wilderness Lodge but toured it and then had lunch at Whispering Canyon. We just said we wanted to look at the decorations and they said no problem and let us in. We were staying on site.

 

[edamethyst]

I would think parking at one place and taking disney transportation would be the easiest.

 

[tigger813]

I would think parking at one place and taking disney transportation would be the easiest.

Have a great trip! I'm jealous! Christmas is the best time to be at Disney! We were there the first week in December last year and it was INCREDIBLE! Can't wait until Dec 2010 for our next December trip!

 

[lovetoscrap]

No, you are not supposed to park at resort where you are not a guest, as a matter of fact, they won't even let you in. But you can use the Disney transportation after parking at a park. Note, you are not supposed to use Disney transportation from DTD to avoid the parking fees.

That isn't true. You are not supposed to park at a resort and then go to the Theme Parks, but if you are going into the resort to tour and/or eat they have no problems with you parking there--you are being a "guest" of the resort. There will be a guard at every resort where you have to stop and just let them know you are going in to tour the resort and see the decorations. That is perfectly fine and you should have no problems.

I would think parking at one place and taking disney transportation would be the easiest.

It is actually much easier to do by car. Disney transportation won't take you from Resort to Resort. So at each resort you would have to take transportation from the resort to a park, or to DTD, then to the resort you want to go to next. This can take up to an hour or more many times. And on the way you will pass many resorts you might have wanted to tour! Disney is pretty well marked as far as the signs pointing you to the resorts. And you can also get a map of the property (I got one from a resort guard last time). Jump in the car and have a great time!

The only exception would be the monorail resorts. I would probably park at the first one and then use the monorail to make the loop around to visit the others. You could also take the boat from the Yacht and Beach Club to the Boardwalk, but that is a much slower route there and back, so I think the car is still probably the best way.